Tears and Fiddling
According to Wikipedia, the internet encyclopedia, a collection of proverbs attributed to Plutarch suggests that the phrase "crocodile tears" was well known in antiquity. The expression is based on an ancient anecdote that crocodiles weep for the victims they are eating.
Wikipedia notes also that the anecdote about Nero playing his fiddle and singing while Rome burned was only rumor.
Regardless of the accuracy of these anecdotes, they are apt descriptions of the nation’s capitol last week. Tears were streaming and fiddles were humming in and around the White House for several days.
An American soldier was killed, two more were wounded, and the crew of a disabled rescue helicopter was surrounded by the enemy in combat in Afghanistan.
Some might think that the tears streaming down our President’s face during this period were for those American troops fighting for their lives in combat.
Wrong! U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan have been over for months. Or at least that is the line coming out of the White House for a while. So the dire circumstances of our service personnel are just more work place violence situations.
That, at least, was the reason given last week for the tears at the President’s podium. Obama ostensibly was mourning the deaths from the massacre in the Newtown Elementary School two years earlier.
This show of emotion was the backdrop for yet another attempt to make the country safe. Not from the Islamic terrorism that is taking American lives here and abroad, but just to make it a tiny bit harder to buy firearms locally.
The President even admitted that his proposals would not have much effect on controlling gun ownership in the country. According to him, however, it might just keep one gun out of some hands that it should not be in.
Actually, those tears were simply to divert attention from the deaths and wounds in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
The continuing, expanding combat with radical Islam is a brilliant red stain emphasizing the absolute disaster of Obama’s foreign and domestic policies.
There is only one picture in the record of this Administration. That is an image reminiscent of Berlin in 1945--utter destruction.
One way to keep that illustration on the back pages of history is to divert attention to subjects way down the list of interests to the American public.
So talk about gun control and fan the fears of the public that the government will confiscate all privately owned firearms. Shed a few tears when this is discussed so that other national and world events will be forgotten.
So here’s the perspective.
An honest appraisal of President Obama’s presidency today will bring down cascades of cries of racism. Facts, however, are hard to ignore forever.
The only legacy Obama can claim with pride is the killing of Osama bin Ladin. But what did that accomplish? As there was no vigorous follow up, radical Islamic Jihadism is stronger and more wide spread than before.
Then there is the Affordable Care Act--ObamaCare--that he frequently refers to as his most prized legacy. There is an abundance of reports, however, that a substantial majority of Americans think the proposal is a failure that should be repealed or, at the very least, substantially amended.
Just like Humpty Dumpty, this administration has fallen off the wall. There are just a few days more than a year left to get it/him back upright
Tears and fiddling will not do the job. Just pray that the wall will not fall too.
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